


Revolution of the Daleks

by orphan_account



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Chaptered, Christmas episode, Friendship, Gen, Post-Canon, Post-Season/Series 12, hinted thirteen/yaz, yes i'm attempting to write the christmas special before christmas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23213950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “Daleks. On Earth. Fighting against each other, what for?” the Doctor questioned, looking between her three companions.“For you, Doctor. The first group to kill you gets control of their entire fleet.” Ryan answered.Jack let out a gruff laugh. “Oh, your face may have changed but nothing else about you ever does…”6 months after she ‘died’ on Gallifrey, the Doctor is once again back on Earth- and her deadliest enemies haven’t been waiting in her absence. Back together with her three trusted companions and one very old friend, it’s time to save the world all over again...
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor & Yasmin Khan, Thirteenth Doctor & Yasmin Khan & Graham O'Brien & Ryan Sinclair
Comments: 19
Kudos: 66





	1. The Effect of Six Months

The ceiling of the small, cold room had lost a lot of the initial interest it once held. After a straight week of staring up at the design, there wasn’t much more to be taken from it- it was made out of metal, most likely an early form of metasteel from the Andiratic galaxy, and at least 3 metres thick. There were gridded vents made from the same material, which couldn’t be budged from their place either. Distantly, a memory of trying to enter a fortress with a metasteel door hundreds of years earlier resurfaced, and the only way entry had been achieved then was when someone had opened the door and let them in. A sonic screwdriver was nothing against the protective forces around the metal, much to the frustration of the figure who had been in the room for at least a month now.

It had been one month since the Doctor’s entire world had been turned upside down.

Inside the lonesome cell, the Doctor had found enough time to think, and no matter what she did, her thoughts always brought her back to the one specific one which she couldn’t still believe. That she was the Timeless Child- the original, immortal Time Lord. And the worst part about it was that she could not remember one second of it.

While inside the Matrix on the ruins of Gallifrey, the Doctor had been allowed to see the briefest of glimpses into her past, and all that had done was create more questions in her mind. The question she had focused on most was the one swirling in her brain- where had she come from before Gallifrey? It had been hard enough when she had to live with the knowledge that she had destroyed her people, but now she was informed that she wasn’t even _one_ of them. She had created a race, and thanks to the Master they were all dead.

That was another thing that wouldn’t leave her head. The Master. He had died- he _must_ have died- when she had fled from Gallifrey, and yet some part of her refused to believe it was true. As much as she hated the only other Time Lord she knew, a part of her buried deep inside wanted nothing more than to keep him alive and well, despite him proving to her on multiple occasions that he was a psychopath who wouldn’t hesitate to destroy races if it got her attention. 

He had been dead before and returned, the Doctor reasoned. He could be out there at the moment, searching time and space for her- or, out in space using his army of Cyber Time Lords to commit mass genocide. She shivered at the thought of those creatures and the havoc they would bring, and hoped that the Master and the Cybermen _were_ dead on Gallifrey.

The Doctor rolled over, staring now at the wall in front of her. It wasn’t made out of the same type of material as the ceiling (she knew because of the taste, something more robust and less fancy) but as there was no door in or out of the cell there was no use trying to escape that way. It was completely barren, with welded seams linking it to each other wall- and 2 metres deep even if she managed to unweld the connections by honing in on their natural frequencies with her sonic. It was useless to try to escape- life in prison under the Judoon really _did_ mean the rest of eternity for her. Perhaps if she waited it out long enough she could regenerate, and in the commotion of that she might be able to make her escape. Trouble was, she quite liked her current form and had grown quite attached to her long hair and lighter body.

Talking about hair, she reached up to thread her fingers through the strands. She hadn’t brushed it since arriving, nor been given an opportunity to cut it, so it had grown past her shoulder and out of her usual style. She supposed it would keep on growing the longer she was down here, and suddenly she felt very _human._ Worrying about her hair and appearance, simply because she had all the time in the world to worry about anything and everything.

Like her friends. She constantly worried about Graham, Ryan and Yaz. With any luck (and a bit of skill on her behalf) they would have made it back to Earth a day after the last time they had left, and would be happily living their lives once again, safe from trouble. She smiled ruefully as images of them meeting up for coffee surfaced in her mind- of Graham relaxing at home; Ryan playing basketball with his friends again; Yaz in a police uniform going back out on patrols. She knew there was always a chance that something had gone wrong on their journey back to Earth, but simply chose not to think about it. If she wanted to hold onto hope in this lonesome cell then she had to believe they were safe once more.

 _I’m coming back, fam._ She thought, as if it would change anything about her situation. _Just you wait._

Time passed. The Doctor stayed laid down on the floor, flitting between sleep and awakeness, not knowing whether her thoughts were dreams or reality. It was only once her daily tablets arrived that she sat up.

This was the only way she was able to count the days that passed- by the meals that came every day in a small, white tablet. It was quite an ingenious invention, to be truthful. In one small capsule you were able to get every daily nutrient that you need- water included. It was incredible technology which the Doctor _knew_ the Judoon must have stolen from somewhere, because there was no way their race was intelligent enough to have made it themselves. But as convenient as it was, the Time Lord would’ve given anything to just have a proper plate of food put down in front of her.

 _Chips._ She thought, as she swallowed the pill dry, shuddering involuntarily at the feeling. _Chips with vinegar and the sauce they put on it on Eophore V…_

Then, the wall she was staring at exploded.

***

_Sheffield, 14th June 2021_

Yasmin Khan placed her desk calendar down on her work table, dark eyes lingering on the date it displayed. Something inside of her stomach clenched as her thoughts filled with memories of a completely different life- finding a giant arachnid inside a hotel; meeting the real life Rosa Parks in 1955; saving people on Earth from mutated humans in the far off future. She closed her eyes, and one memory rose to the surface above all else. Staring into the Doctor’s eyes as she realised that her friend was planning to sacrifice herself to destroy the last remnants of her own people- and knowing there was nothing Yasmin could do or say to stop her.

As of today, it had been exactly 6 months since the Doctor had died. _Well,_ Yasmin reasoned, _6 months since she had last seen her. Would be at least a few million years before it actually happened._

It was days like these, in particular, that Yaz found it difficult to keep her head high and keep believing. Inside of her, there was still a spark of illogical optimism which she held onto- the part which told her that the Doctor _couldn’t_ be dead. That she was out there somewhere- perhaps trapped on an alien planet, somewhere far from the TARDIS and _that_ was the reason she hadn’t returned to them yet. Because there _had_ to be some reason as to her absence, else if not then the truth would have to be acknowledged. That the Doctor was gone for good.

Yaz shook her head to rid herself of the thoughts creeping into her mind. It would do her no good to waste time pondering the _what if’s_ of the situation. The Doctor would’ve wanted her to get on with her life, to make a difference in the world and to live the happiest life she could.

_“Live great lives.” the Doctor softly spoke, turning round to leave them one last time. Yaz could only watch as the greatest person she had ever met left._

Yaz opened up her email on her Hallamshire Police desktop computer as soon as it finished loading. If she couldn’t do anything else, the least she could do was her job to keep the people in Sheffield as safe as possible. Despite still being a probation constable, her dedication to her job in the past half a year had seen her trusted with more complex (and frankly, more interesting) cases to manage, and she had risen to the challenge. More than anything, she was grateful for something to fill her days with- a distraction and goal to focus on, to keep her ticking and to give her some sort of purpose in life.

After seeing the secrets of the universe firsthand, nothing that happened in Sheffield would ever be able to compare to that feeling.

***

“You doing okay, mate?”

Ryan Sinclair jumped as a hand landed on his shoulder, scaring him out of his thoughts from where he stood. He turned around, and looked to see his close friend, Tibo, standing directly behind him in line for coffee. He smiled.

“Tibo! How are you doing?” Ryan replied, immediately pulling his friend into a quick hug. He began to feel his worries slip further from his mind, grateful to see his best mate (who was one of the only people that he could truly speak freely around).

After unintentionally becoming involved in an alien attack earlier on in the year, Tibo had learnt the truth about where Ryan had been travelling, and who it had been with- and had believed it, despite the absurdity of the truth he had been told. Once Ryan had returned to Earth for good, Tibo had been the brother Ryan had never had, and had patiently sat through the pain of losing the Doctor with his friend. It was a debt Ryan didn’t think he would ever be able to pay back, and knew that he wouldn’t be the person he was without him to help him through it.

“I’m good,” Tibo replied, shooting him a genuine looking smile. Ryan relaxed, glad to know that he was doing better mentally than ever before. “I was just thinking the other day- it must be about half a year since you’ve been back now, right?”

13th June. A lump stuck in Ryan’s throat which he quickly swallowed down. “Yeah, 6 months today actually.”

Tibo shot him a kind look, knowing the mix of emotions that Ryan would be feeling. He himself had been saddened to hear of the Doctor’s passing, and couldn’t have imagined what it felt like to Ryan, who had travelled across galaxies with her. He knew that his friend was a lot stronger than he had been immediately after her death, which (for now) was enough. Recently, it had seemed that his friend was almost as good as he had ever been- the grief having gone from a fresh wound to something he had accepted at last.

“You should do something to celebrate 6 months back here!” He suggested.

“Oh, Graham’s invited Yaz and I over to his later today,” Ryan replied, smiling. It would be good to catch up with the gang after not properly meeting all together for a few weeks. He still texted Yaz most days, keeping each other updated with their lives (or in his case, checking his friend was doing alright and focusing on something _other_ than work). “I’d invite you over, if it were like that…”

Tibo smiled back at him. “No, I understand. The three of you together, makes sense today.”

Ryan felt relieved, nodding his head. “We should catch up though. Got plans this weekend?”

As the conversation between them continued to flow, Ryan soon found the 6 month milestone falling to the back of his mind, filling his mind with distractions as they talked instead. He was lucky to have a best friend who really cared about his well being. It made days like today a lot easier.

***

If it wasn’t for the catch-up with his friends later that day, Graham O’Brian wouldn’t have been aware of the importance of that particular day. To him, it was just another day waking up in the safety of his home, not having to worry about anything other than the weather outside.

It wasn’t that Graham was happy about everything that had happened- he had spent countless sleepless nights playing over the events of that fateful last meeting with the Doc, each time regretting that he didn’t do anything to stop her from the suicide mission she left for. But he had dealt with grief before, far too much grief that any one person should go through in a lifetime. He had made peace with being home, and was grateful that he, his grandson and his friend Yaz had made it back at all.

His days of chasing alien creatures were long behind him, and a part of him felt guilty at the relief he felt when he could end the day sitting on the sofa and watching trash on a TV. It was the small comforts associated with living at home that he had missed the most while on his travels, and fully allowed himself time to sit and enjoy a quiz show or doing the sudoku in the morning's paper. 

_Snacks._ He thought, as he mentally planned what he needed to get before tea with his friends today. _Biscuits and drinks._

Having nothing better to do, Graham slowly made his way out of the house and down the road, destined for his local corner shop. The streets of Sheffield were particularly quiet that afternoon, as Graham took his time meandering down, looking up at the blue sky above and enjoying the peace. There was one sun in the sky, and birds (normal, Earth-born birds) were making noises from a small thicket that stood at the end of the road. A dog yapped from across the street, dragging its owner along with it as it stared at a leaf blowing in the wind.

Graham was happy. He missed the Doc, more than he could ever put into words, but knew exactly how to find joy in the simpler things in his life instead of focusing on the sadness. His thoughts moved to his Grandson, who he knew was doing better than ever- both mentally after the events of the past few years, and physically with his Dyspraxia (which was something Ryan was no longer allowing to prevent him from living his life). To Graham, the best part of travelling with the Doctor had been how it had allowed Ryan to finally trust and accept his Grandfather, and it was something that he was thankful for every day.

Now, Yaz on the other hand. Graham sighed as he thought of the last time they had met up at Yasmin’s flat. She had invited them into her place, and all Graham could do was focus on the walls and tables of her room, filled with photos and news articles and all sorts of evidence about something. To begin with, he had thought it was for a case that she was taking on as a probation officer, but getting closer he could see the truth. They were all pieces of information about a certain individual- or accounts from other people on peculiar events which must’ve been thrown out of police reports for being too unbelievable to take seriously. She was researching any and every supernatural account in Sheffield, Graham presumed in the hopes of finding some way to link it to their dead friend.

Yaz wasn’t over the Doctor leaving- if anything, her death hadn’t even registered as truth in her mind, and Graham hated to see her so hung up over the past. When she had presented them with evidence that she believed had something to do with an alien invasion, he had kindly suggested that she talk to someone about how she was feeling- a family member, or perhaps someone like a therapist. It wasn’t normal for her grief to extend so far into her own life, and Graham made it his mission to make sure he checked in on her from time to time, to ascertain that she was getting some time off from her job or this project she was working on.

As he exited the shop, tin of biscuits in hand, he noticed the sun beginning to lower in the sky. Checking his watch, he saw that it was only half an hour before the others were due to arrive at his, which was perfect timing in his mind. Just enough time for him to get home and pop the kettle on, and maybe catch the last 5 minutes of _The Chase_ on TV... 

_Boom._

Graham stopped dead in his tracks as he heard a loud noise coming from behind him. He turned around, and saw (in the far off distance) a column of smoke rising from the direction of the city centre. His jaw opened as he stood, shell shocked, until the noise of his mobile ringing in his pocket broke him from his trance. Checking the caller ID he saw that it was Yasmin calling him, and answered quickly (praying that she hadn’t been caught up in the supposed explosion from the city).

“Yaz,” He answered, speaking quickly. “Are you alright? What was that noise?”

“No time to talk- meet me at my place as soon as you can, there’s something I need to show you.” She replied, sounding out of breath and slightly panicked. However, beneath all of the stress there was something in her voice which sounded more familiar to Graham- something more alive, as if she had been waiting for this moment of adventure to return to her.

“Is this to do with that noise I just heard from the city?” He asked warily.

Yaz laughed in reply. “Oh yes. It’s got everything to do with that.”

***

As the wall in front of her exploded, The Doctor intuitively rolled over and reached her arms up to guard her face, feeling tiny bits of metal land around her. She coughed as the dust which had been unsettled from the wall floated in the air, but quickly got to her feet and turned around to face whatever it was that was breaking into her cell.

A tall figure stood shadowed in the gap now made, face obscured by the dust in the air. It took one step towards her and entered the cell, face becoming illuminated by the artificial light there. The Doctor looked at the tall, broad man standing in front of her, cheeky grin on his face and a twinkle in his blue eyes. She gasped at the sight of an old friend, standing proudly in front of her in his trademark trench-coat…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!! This is a long fic which I am going to try to write while my university is shut! Comment and Kudos if you enjoyed!!  
> 


	2. Old Friends Reunited

Yaz slammed a file filled to the brim with pieces of paper on the desk where Graham and Ryan were sitting.

It was late afternoon, not long after the incident in the city had been first reported, and Yaz had convinced both of her friends to join her in her room and present her evidence to them. For the past few months one of her jobs as a trainee officer had been to go through the backlog of reports made at the police office, and sort out the cases which had been thrown out by her mentors. It was menial work that she had hated to be put on, until one day when she had noticed a link between a few reports that had come through, all talking about similar incidents at the same location. None of her superior officers had picked up on the link, as the cases had been handled by different officers each time, but as Yaz read through the masses of the so called 'unimportant reports' her mind had begun to whir. Something about the incidents had just seemed _unreal,_ as if there was something non-human to them- evidently the reason they had been chucked into the pile of trash. And deciding to run her own investigation, Yaz had taken photocopies of each one, bringing them back home to further research into the events going on in Sheffield.

“Reports from the past 2 weeks of a variety of different incidents. All talking about seeing some kind of metal robot, bigger than a human with weapons attached to their front- and all centered around these two areas in the city.” Yaz explained quickly, pointing out on a map two areas which were circled with red marker pen. “And today, 15:34 the Sheffield Cathedral goes up in smoke.”

Her pen moved towards the area of the map where the cathedral was marked, drawing another circle around it.

“Slap bang in between where these things were spotted.” Ryan noted, making the connection Yaz was trying to point out. She nodded.

“So you’re saying this thing today is connected to the sightings?” Graham asked, trying to understand what Yaz was saying.

“Yes. Think about it- we’ve seen so many alien races across the universe, and I have a feeling this situation involves more than just humans.” Yaz said.

Ryan frowned. “And you got all this from, what? Some reports of metal things in a basement?”

“It’s been going on for too long to be coincidence. And today, there’s no way that the explosion in the city just _happened_ to be directly in between the two places where these things have been spotted.”

“It does seem quite coincidental, I’ll give you that.” Graham mused, rubbing his chin. He couldn’t help but agree with the fact that too many things were all adding up to point to the same problem, but a part of him still hoped (and feared) that Yaz was trying to find something where nothing was really occurring. A wave of guilt washed over him as he remembered brushing off his friend when she had last presented this evidence to him, and he realised he could have taken the evidence a bit more seriously than he had. At the time, it had just seemed too weak to make him worry that much, and he had put it to the back of his mind. It was evident that Yaz had not done so, as she had refused to give up on the matter. He was drawn out of his thoughts when his grandson spoke.

“So, what should we do? Pack some bags and get out of here?” Ryan asked.

Yaz stared at him, eyes open in shock. Graham looked pensive, wondering if this one explosion and stack of eye-witness evidence was enough of a worry to leave the city he called home.

“We’re not running away!” Yaz replied, looking completely offended at the notion. “We need to come up with a plan!”

“But we’re just human- nothing against aliens, if that's what you think is the cause of all this is!” Ryan said.

“We’ve beaten all kinds of things like this before.” Yaz pointed out.

“No- _we_ didn’t beat them. The Doctor did. And she’s dead.”

The room paused, the argument momentarily forgotten. All of a sudden the memories of their old friend came rushing back to them, Ryan looking guilty at having brought the topic up again. He knew how hard it had hit Yaz, and he regretted using her death as a point to argue against her with.

“Then that’s even more of a reason for us to go investigate. If she can’t save the world, then we’re the next best thing.” Yaz replied after a minute, determination shining through the other, remorseful emotions in her eyes.

“If these creatures are really powerful enough to destroy the cathedral, then Ryan’s right- we don’t stand a chance.” Graham pointed out, and raised his finger to quieten Yaz when she tried to interrupt. “But- and this is a reluctant but- if we were to go see what the situation was, we could then decide what to do once we know what’s going on.”

Yaz beamed at him, thankful to have been taken seriously. Contrary to her reaction, Ryan shook his head from beside them.

“Just this one thing. Then we get the hell out of this city.” He demanded, then turned to look at Yaz. “So, do you have a plan?”

***

“Captain Jack Harkness, coming through. Sorry for the break-in.”

The Doctor stared, gobsmacked at her old friend. _Captain Jack Harkness!_ She hadn’t seen him for years! She noted his appearance: still wearing an army trench coat- without his Captain’s hat, however. His face did still bear his trademark annoyingly smug smirk, and though his eyes glimmered with the same cheekiness of youth as before, his skin showed signs of ageing. Beneath his jet black hair there were wrinkles on his cheeks and forehead that hadn’t been there the last time they had been together.

“Jack!” The Doctor exclaimed, as he quickly began to walk forwards and aim the metal device he was holding at the wall next to her.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out! I mean,” He added, giving the Doctor a glance all over, and raising an eyebrow. “Not in our current situation, anyway… So, you are?”

The Doctor rolled her eyes. “It’s me! The Doctor.” She cried.

Jack stopped his movement, and suddenly whipped around so that he was facing her again. “Doctor?” He asked, jaw dropping open in glee. “Your friends said you were female now, but the reality is a thousand times better than my imagination…”

“Stop it, you!” The Doctor chastised, frowning at him for a moment before opening her arms as Jack pulled her into a tight hug, swirling them both around. Pulling away from each other, the Doctor held him at an arm's length and her grin turned into a frown.

“What’re you doing in a Judoon prison?” She asked, not knowing whether she wanted to hear the answer.

“I could ask _you_ the same question,” He replied, cocking his eyebrow at his friend. “It turns out, Judoon _really_ don’t take very well to people who steal their spaceships-”

Jack was interrupted suddenly by a loud noise, coming from the direction he had entered the room in.

“No time- let’s catch up once we’re out of here,” The Doctor suggested, face frowning determinedly. “Can that thing get through any of these walls?” She motioned vaguely at the device which Jack was still holding.

“Course it can- Judoon weaponry! Gets through any of their defences.” He replied, looking proud of himself.

“Do I want to know how you got hold of it?”

“Let’s just say it involved my death, a Judoon mortician and a hell of a lot of seduction.” Jack answered, turning to point the gun-like technology at the wall on the left of where he had entered, as the Doctor pulled a face at the images he had put inside her head. It took a few seconds to charge, before a beam of orange energy shot out and burst the wall open, allowing access to the corridor behind.

“Come on!” Jack shouted, leading the way out in a quick run, the Doctor following closely behind. Alarm bells were ringing throughout the complex- something the Doctor hadn’t noticed in her cell. _Must have pretty good sensory isolators in place,_ she mused to herself, noticing that although the corridor had nameplates placed evenly on the walls, there wasn’t a single door which could be opened into any other cell. There could be (and probably were) thousands of creatures trapped inside the complex, all facing life imprisonment in one of the most secure Judoon prisons, for crimes the Doctor couldn’t even begin to worry about. The universe was very lucky that Jack had burst into her cell and not the cell of some mass-murderer who destroyed planets in their spare time…

“To the left!” She shouted as she spotted three tall Judoon ahead of them in the corridor. She grabbed the back of Jack’s coat and dragged him through a door just before they caught sight of the two of them, and continued to run forwards. The corridor ahead of them was different to the one they had just exited from- while the old one had been plain and barren, this one was darker and less well illuminated. Storage units littered the wall on their left, whereas the right wall had an array of doors and pipes.

“Do you have a destination in mind?” She called behind her.

“About that-” Jack began warily. “I was _hoping_ to find the Judoon landing bay and steal one of their ships again.”

The Doctor scoffed loudly. “Yeah, right. They’d catch us on one of those things within hours- if you want a permanent tracker on you then be my guest!”

“Well, do you have a better idea?” He shot back, ducking under an air vent which hung from the ceiling. The Doctor continued to run, trying to think of a plan.

“They took me from my TARDIS- I know where it is, but it’ll be thousands of parsecs away from here.” She thought out loud.

“Cool, that’s helpful because?” Jack asked sarcastically.

“It’s not. Go _right!”_ She exclaimed as she managed to stop herself from running head first into a tall Judoon which had just turned out of the door in front of them. She backtracked and entered the previous door, hearing the Judoon pass out some orders to some other guards. As she began to run faster, she heard a noise from behind her- and then the shooting began.

“Keep following me!” She ordered, turning right into another corridor and then immediately left into a different one, trying to go in as confusing a direction as possible.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Jack replied, and she could almost feel the grin on his face. “Been wanting to use that one for a long time.”

A beam of light energy from a gun behind them ricocheted off the ceiling, causing the two escaped prisoners to duck as they pressed forwards. Hitting a locked door at the end of the corridor, the Doctor reached into her pocket and bought out her sonic screwdriver, pressing the button down on the side of it as it whirred to life. Seconds later, she pulled the door open and shepherded Jack into the room beyond, following him through herself and slamming the door shut once more. As she turned around, she crashed into Jack. He had stopped at the beginning of the room, staring in front of them...

Right into a patrol of Judoon.

***

As soon as she noticed the smoke rising up from the tall church in the city, Meredith Parker immediately feared the absolute worst. She reached into her pocket for her mobile, and pulled it out, hands shaking as she tried to pull up her contacts and scroll down to Dan’s number. Once she pressed the call button, she waited without a single breath in or out.

It rang itself until the familiar voicemail message began.

Meredith was a perfectly normal human leading a perfectly normal life, with her perfectly normal job at the post office and her perfectly normal husband to return to after her daytime shifts. She had spent her 25 years of existence on Earth living an average life, involving all the typical events a young adult may have experienced so far. At the age of 16, she had met her childhood sweetheart and fallen for him immediately, spending their last two years of high-school by each other's side and claiming their well-deserved prom king and queen title at the end of it. Afterwards, she had chosen to stay at home and start a job at the post office down her road, while her boyfriend Daniel Parker had gone to pursue his passion by studying History at a prestigious university. Within a few months of him completing his degree, they were engaged to be married and didn’t hesitate to tie the knot as soon as they were able to.

Once they had settled down into married life, under her encouragement Dan had applied for a position at the local cathedral, and the caretakers of the tourist attraction (enamoured by his enthusiasm for the history of the city and it’s landmarks) had given him the job on the spot. Every day Dan would go to the cathedral to enthuse and inspire the public with its history, while Meredith would work to file letters and parcels only a few hundred metres down the road from where he worked. Each evening, she would wait for him to finish his last tour and they would make their way back home together, excepting Fridays when she had an early break and would spend her afternoon having tea with her best friend from high school.

All in all, Meredith had been happily allowing life to pass her by without much of a care in the world- that was, until one fateful Friday afternoon. As per her routine, Charlotte (her best friend) had come over to visit, but something had been inexplicably wrong from the moment she sat down. It had taken some prodding, but she had managed to whittle the problem out of her friend, and had at first thought her absolutely crazy. The stories of metal machines with weapons that could destroy anything in its path sounded like something off a television program- but seeing how shaken Charlotte had been, she had taken it upon herself to investigate the source of her worries.

What she had found out while watching the goings on underneath the abandoned church at the end of her road had changed her perfect little life forever. The creatures she had laid her eyes on that night had shocked her to the core- so much so that when she returned back home, she refused to believe what she had seen. Some part of her brain was trying to convince herself that she had imagined the beings, and somehow she decided to believe that as the truth (though not without phoning up the Doctor’s Practice down the road and booking herself an appointment later that week to check her mental well-being).

Meredith had managed to put the event to the back of her mind- content in playing a passive part of whatever was going on in her city, until that Monday afternoon when she was just about to leave her job for the day. The rumbling she had felt had worried her, and as she ran outside she could see in the distance the sight of smoke rising from the cathedral, and a sense of dread filled her stomach.

Snapping her phone shut, Meredith broke into a quick run as she headed towards the disaster site, looking ahead to see police members swarming it. She approached quickly, but soon found her pathway blocked by one of the emergency services officers dressed in a coat made of reflective material, and despite her protesting couldn’t get past him.

“But please- my husband works there! He’s inside!” She cried, begging at the tall man in front of her. 

His face twisted in sympathy, but he shook his head nonetheless. “I’m sorry Ma’am, but rules are rules. No civilians allowed past this point- please head back home and try to stay calm.” He spoke, but Meredith had stopped listening, panic rising inside her. Her _husband_ was in there somewhere, and she couldn’t just sit around and do nothing!

Focusing on the firefighters who were rushing to enter the smouldering remains of the building, she felt tears swarm at her eyes and blinked them away quickly. In her blurry vision, she suddenly caught a glimpse of something odd- something she remembered seeing before in darker light, and a less chaotic yet equally chilling setting. Her blood ran cold as she took in bronze metal and the silver weapon which stuck out- and then, in the blink of an eye, it was gone.

Her mind racing, she turned around and began to back track, heading back not to her home but to the one place she had seen those creatures before. Despite the absolute terror she felt at the prospect of getting involved with matters that looked as life threatening as this, something within her drove her forwards in determination. If these creatures had had _anything_ to do with the destruction of her husband's work, she wanted to find out what was going on, and more importantly what she could do to stop this madness. She had spent too much of her life playing the passive girl- and now it was time to stand up and play her part in life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey hey thank you guys for reading!! think updates are gonna be weekly but i snuck out this one after a few days to get things going!!


	3. Escape!

By the time Graham had arrived at the cathedral disaster scene, the emergency services seemed to have got everything under their control. He felt uneasy, worried about Yaz’s plan and not for the first time wondered if it would’ve been safer for them all to stick together- if more time consuming. Sending his friends off to investigate the sites where there had been sightings while he went to investigate the cathedral was logical, especially as they had agreed to spend an hour at their location and meet back up afterwards to reconvene and decide how to proceed. The adrenaline running through his body was an unwelcome feeling which he hadn’t felt for 6 months, and yet part of it spurred him on and encouraged him to get to the bottom of this case- itching to break out into a run to catch the alien they were looking for.

“Sorry Sir, no members of the public past this point.” A gruff voice spoke as Graham approached, holding his arm out to bar him from getting through.

“But I’m here to help, if you let me in I’ll make a start on trying to catch whatever caused this.” He spoke idly, moving to keep walking but found himself stopped once more by the police man.

He let out a chuckle. “And just who do you think you are? Secret agent? MI6?”

“I’m… I’m Graham O’Brian,” He replied, and frowned, muttering under his breath. “How’d the Doc manage to just waltz into places like this?”

“Sorry,  _ Graham O’Brian _ , but this is a matter for the Police. Please escort yourself back home and try to stay calm.” The man instructed, and Graham nodded, sensing that any further resistance would see worse consequences than he would be able to deal with. He didn’t particularly fancy having to explain to Yaz and Ryan why he was in a holding cell at the local police office.

Graham looked at the cathedral and tried to weigh up his options. He could text the others that he hadn’t been able to get access to his area and wait out the hour to see them again, but he felt disappointed in himself as he considered this. Surely there must be  _ some  _ way to get nearer to the site?  _ Well, I’ll just have to go round the back and see if there’s a way in there instead _ , Graham reasoned to himself before turning on his feet and stalking away.

Behind the cathedral was a narrow alley, leading to the back entrance which had a small, open area shielded from view. It was very quiet-  _ too quiet,  _ Graham noted as he felt a chill go down his spine. Something had happened here, and while he didn’t know what it quite was, he was certain that it couldn’t be anything good. He moved closer to the doors, but stopped once he got to the clearer area, looking around him at the cobbled floor.

Lying on the floor were about 10 bodies, still and unmoving. Graham paused for a second, pushed down the urge to run away from the site, and then managed to seven police men and three others. He bent over to reach for the closest one to him. Gently touching his fingers to the neck, he felt dread fill his body when there was no pulse to be found. Shakily he moved onto the other humans, one by one finding them lifeless, though not yet cold. Whatever had done this had attacked very recently, and could still be in the area. Standing up, Graham took out his phone to take a photo which he sent to the other two, just in case he wasn’t able to reach them and tell them himself what he had seen. His heart was beating faster than it had in half a year.

“Hello? Anyone here?” He called bravely, not entirely sure whether he wanted to hear back from anything which might be in his close vicinity. Waiting with bated breath, he listened closely for noise. For a few seconds he couldn’t hear anything, until he suddenly heard quiet moaning from behind the doors to the cathedral. He quickly moved forwards, glad to hear a human sounding noise and opened the doors, stepping inside.

The lighting inside the back entrance was dark, and it took his eyes a few seconds to adjust to the dim light. Once they did, he started to scan where he was in an attempt to find where the noise had come from. It seemed this entrance was a store cupboard- or had been, instead now it had a crumbling roof above, and patches of the wall in front were broken off, reduced to rubble by whatever had caused this attack. Graham heard the noise again, coming from his left and he whipped around. Lying prone on the floor, back half pinned down by what looked like part of the ceiling, was a young man with dark hair matted with sticky liquid and unfocused eyes. Graham rushed over.

“Are you okay?” He asked. “Can you speak?”

After a moment of pause, the man coughed feebly but broke out into speech with a hoarse voice. “They left, they killed them all-”

He was interrupted by another coughing fit which moved his body and shifted part of the stone on top of him, causing the man to cry out in pain.

“They’re gone now, don’t worry. What’s your name, son?” Graham asked, before he turned in the direction of the cathedral entrance. “ _ Help! Somebody, please help! There’s a man trapped here!” _

“My- my name is Dan. Dan Parker.” Dan managed to get out. Graham gave him a warm smile.

“Dan. Good to meet you, my name is Graham O’Brian. We’re gonna get you out of here, don’t you worry.” Graham reassured him, and pulled up his phone once more, dialing 999 and waiting as it tried to connect. However, something about their location (or perhaps the overuse of emergency calls in this area) prevented it from connecting, and Graham nearly swore. “I’m going to have to go for a minute, and get help. I’ll be right back.”

“No!” Dan shouted, reaching up suddenly with one good arm. It seemed to take the last remaining energy from him, as he collapsed even lower. “Please don’t leave me. I don’t want to die alone.”

“You’re not going to die, son.” Graham spoke defiantly, once again turning to call loudly. As he bent closer to Dan he suddenly heard movement from behind the broken wall- and sighed in relief as he heard a voice calling back.

“Is someone there?” It said, muffled and quiet.

“Yes! There’s a man here trapped. I got in round the back- send some people here as quickly as possible!” Graham instructed, and the movement began to fade. There was no way anybody would be able to get into this alcove through the front, so he supposed he would have to wait until they made it round the back.

“Please. I’m going to die here.” Dan spoke, voice weaker than it had been. “I don’t want to die!”

“I promise, son, you won’t. People are coming to help.” Graham continued to assure him, feeling ever panicked as he saw how weak the man was getting. “Keep talking to me. What happened here?”

Dan’s eyes began to go glassy as he tried to remember. His mouth opened and closed a few times, before he was able to answer. “I don’t know. One second-” He broke off into another, weak cough which left a trail of blood on his lips. Graham winced and prayed for the emergency services to move faster. “One second, it was normal. Then these metal things got in, and they- they-”

He went quiet. “What did they do?” Graman asked, frantically searching for movement in Dan’s limp body. “Dan? Stay with me, what did these creatures do?”

“They shot everyone here. Shot the ceilings... and then it was all collapsing... I tried to get people out... but I wasn’t quick enough. Not… not for me- not-” He broke off, eyes closing for a second.

“Save your breath, Dan. Just hold on for me.” Graham said, eyes filling with tears as he gripped Dan’s hand tightly.

“Please. Tell Meredith…” Dan started, and Graham tried to quieten him but he continued nonetheless. “Tell my wife that I love her. More than the universe, and all the stars… all the stars in the night sky…”

He gave Graham a watery smile, before his eyes closed for the last time, body collapsing as his head lolled to the ground.

“No, no, no- please…” Graham begged, reaching for his face and trying to get him to look up at him. “Stay with me Dan. You’re not done yet.”

He felt tears fall from his eyes and land on the dusty floor beneath him, as the reality of the man’s end hit him. He was looking at the body of a man who had died trying to get other people to safety, and the world had taken him. No- not the world. Whatever the creatures were that had caused this devastation were the cause of this death. Graham was filled with a sense of rage, and finally found himself agreeing with Yaz. They were going to get to the bottom of this, with or without the Doctor to help them. If it would prevent more innocent lives from being lost, then he was willing to risk his own trying to save the planet once again.

***

“So To Plo Po Sho To Ho Flo Ro Flo Sco!”

“Wo Flo Sho So Tro Ro Ro Flo No Do Flo Ro Sco!” The Doctor shouted back, causing Jack to stare at her in confusion.

“You understand their language?” He questioned.

“Yes. Shut up.” She snapped back, and Jack held up his hands in submission.

“Language detected: English.” The Judoon in command spoke, his gun still trained on the two of them. “I repeat- Stop there!”

“We’ve stopped, no need to get your knickers in a twist!” Jack replied, sensing the Doctor’s glare that she shot his way. After receiving further Judoon instructions they walked into the center of the room, hands held high as they moved away from the door. Whilst walking, the Doctor saw Jack’s coat slip down and noticed that he still wore his Vortex Manipulator- and her mind began to race. Walking close to him all of a sudden, she spoke very quickly and quietly under her breath.

“Does your Vortex Manipulator still work?” She questioned, and Jack rolled his eyes.

“Do you think I’d be here if it did?”

“When I signal, I’m going to fix it with my sonic and I want you to get us both out of here. Sheffield, end of 2020.” She finished, and took Jack’s raised eyebrow to be enough conformation.

“You will stop talking  _ now _ . Under Judoon jurisdiction, the rights of escaped prisoners are revoked. The female will be taken back to her cell, but the male will be destroyed on the spot. Take aim!” The Judoon called out, and upon its command every other Judoon in the room readied their weapon, aiming it straight at Jack.

“Hang on a moment. Why just Jack? Why aren’t you executing me too?” The Doctor cried, and the Judoon turned to her. “Under Intergalactic rule- err, 592, as a prisoner I demand to know the terms of my detainment.”

“You don’t know why you’re here?” Jack hissed under his breath.

“No idea.” The Doctor replied. 

“Well, does it matter? Get us out of here before they shoot me!” He insisted, hands still held above his head.

“Information: Classified. Contractor status: Unreachable. Under Judoon law, prisoners will be detained for eternity, unless a new contractor contacts the platoon.” The leader relayed, and the Doctor frowned.

“Hang on, unreachable? What does that mean?” The Doctor questioned. “Is it to do with Gat?”

“Information: Classified. Prisoner will be taken back to her cell, and the male will be destroyed. Ready your weapons.”

The Doctor’s mind whirled. It would make sense that the Judoon were holding her because of Ruth- her previous incarnation. But why couldn’t the Judoon get hold of any other Time Lords? What did they want with Ruth in the first place?

“Wait, wait!” She shouted as they pulled back their weapons to charge them.

“On the count of three.”

Jack turned to face the Doctor, panic in his eyes. “Doctor.” He gritted out, teeth clenched. “I’d rather not die again today, if at all possible.”

“One.”

“But you can’t just lock me up and not tell me what my crime was!” The Doctor reasoned.

“Two.”

_ “Doctor!”  _ Jack cried, and she finally gave up, reaching as fast as she could into her pocket and pulled her sonic screwdriver up. In half a second, she had reset Jack’s Vortex Manipulator to factory settings, and the next thing she knew her arm was grabbed by her friend’s and he was frantically typing something into his device. In the blink of an eye, she lost sight of the Judoon Platoon and was being transported through time, insides swirling as the fabric of reality moved around her.

Hands on her knees, the Doctor caught her breath as she took in the fresh air from around her. Sniffing, she smiled as her senses were hit with the familiar smell of Sheffield City. Despite the uneasy journey, Jack had managed to get them to the correct location at least.

“I  _ hate  _ that thing.” The Doctor spoke, walking up to Jack and immediately zapping his Vortex Manipulator with her Sonic. He began to protest loudly.

“Oh, come on! I just got it fixed! It’s been broken for centuries!” He whined, as the Doctor gave him a stern look.

“You survived without it for this long.” She replied, and stared at Jack for a few seconds, the frown on his face staying put. Before she knew it, he was grinning at her again and pulling her into another tight hug.

“God I’ve missed you!” He said, pulling apart to get a proper look at her. “And your new body- I always thought you were too lanky, and now look at you! Curves and long hair and-”

“Okay, I don’t need you to point out what I look like, I’ve been in this body for a while now.” The Doctor interrupted as soon as she saw where her friend's eyes were headed.

“But if I'm remembering correctly, can't Time Lords only regenerate 12 times? You must be near your 13th by now?” He asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

“Oh. About that.” She answered, fixing a fake smile on her face. “This is my 13th body- well, technically my 15th, if we're being pedantic- but the Time Lords gave me 12 more, not that there was any point to that really. I mean, truthfully this isn’t even my 13th face- could be my 500th by now. I’m not too sure on the details…”

“What are you talking about?” Jack questioned, confused as ever around the Time Lord.

“It doesn’t matter. Space shenanigans- point is, I’m here now! You missed out on two of my favourite faces- oh, you would’ve loved my 11th...!” The Doctor babbled, hoping to distract him from prying further into her past. She wasn’t yet ready to talk at length about the truths she had discovered on Gallifrey.

“I’m sorry I missed you. I’m just glad I caught up to you while you’re still female,” He said, grinning widely at her. “When your friends told me about it, I could hardly believe my ears…”

The Doctor froze. “Friends- yes! Yaz, Ryan, Graham- I have to go and find them!” She shouted, twirling round to see just where they had arrived in Sheffield. Seeing the sky above, she paused and realised that she wasn’t feeling particularly cold, which was unusual for the end of the year in Britain. There were birds flying, and it felt like it could be a warm summer’s day.

“Jack. Why is it this warm in December?” She asked him, raising one of her own eyebrows. His eyes widened, hand flying to his arm before he remembered that it was broken. Holding his arm out, the Doctor fixed it once more for him and watched as he fiddled.

“Ah.” He finally answered, looking sheepish. “When you said the end of 2020…”

“What time period are we in?” She asked frantically.

“June, 2021.” Jack said.

“And  _ this  _ is why I don’t trust your stupid gizmo!” She cried, suddenly annoyed at him. “You do realise that if we’d arrived 6 months  _ before  _ I asked, we could’ve created a paradox on this planet if I’d been on it as well?”

Jack looked slightly embarrassed, but turned defiantly to her anyway. “Well, it's better to be here late than stuck in a cell as a prisoner of the Judoon, right? Or a dead prisoner?”

She shook her head at him, feeling angry underneath her skin. Her friends had probably been alone on this planet for 6 months- and all of them must have assumed she was dead. “Come on. I  _ need  _ to go find my friends.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo yo lovely people! thanks for reading once more, and comment what you think about it all if you want!! you seem to be in luck with my updating skills- I'm planning to post chapters every Friday and possibly every Tuesday as well! <3


	4. If you see a Dalek...

_Why did it have to be an abandoned warehouse?_ Ryan asked himself as he reached the derelict concrete building he had reluctantly agreed to investigate. His heart thumped in his chest as he looked at the rundown, boarded up building, wondering where the best way to get in would be. He cautiously approached, spying an old fire exit which seemed to have been left intact, though there was some colourful graffiti scrawled over it. Grabbing the door handle, he twisted it open and cringed as it squeaked noisily open. A part of his brain was still convinced that Yaz was fixated on the idea of an alien invasion simply in the hopes that the Doctor would return to them- which, while not impossible was highly unlikely, and not something he believed would ever happen. Yaz, on the other hand, seemed so far in denial that she couldn’t see what was clear and obvious to anyone else around her.

He sighed, puffed out his chest and walked into the building, turning on the flashlight on his phone to illuminate the way. The sooner he got this over and done with, the better. He continued forwards until he reached a corridor, which didn’t look suspicious until Ryan noticed one thing. The overhead lights were on, and ran all the way down the corridor.

As he had no better option, other than returning to the others early, Ryan pressed on further, walking slowly down the hall with his eyes wide open. Catching movement in the corner of his eye, he hid quickly behind a meal container on the right of the corridor, but upon further inspection saw it was just a piece of tarpaulin covering the doorway up ahead, blowing slightly in a draft coming from an open window. He breathed a sigh of relief and got back to his feet, letting his feet drag his nervous body forwards. As he reached the end of the corridor, he looked through the semi-transparent sheet, listening out for any noise or movement beyond. Hearing there was none, he collected himself and opened it a crack.

Nothing was inside. The area there was free of any form of life, though it did look like something had been happening in the room prior to his arrival. Walking in, he inspected the surroundings properly. Any furniture which had once been in the centre had been pushed to the side, leaving the middle of the room empty, and when he looked closer Ryan could see the dust on the floor had been moved and had left sorts of track, as if someone had pushed boxes through the room. Deciding that there was nothing more to be seen here, he was about to move on when he heard a faint whirring noise from the corridor he had just left.

Panic rose inside him, and he jumped behind an old metal filing cabinet, crouching low so that he would only be seen if someone were to walk directly past and look down in his direction. His ears strained to try to hear what was going on, and he nearly jumped out of his skin when a familiar tone of voice rang out through the building.

 _“REPORT ON THE ATTACK IN THE CITY. HAVE THE OTHER FLEET GOT HOLD OF THE EQUIPMENT?”_ A shrill, robotic voice called out.

Ryan recognised that voice. His body froze, paralysed. It belonged to a Dalek. Thinking back to months ago, he remembered the last time he had encountered one of these creatures. He shuddered as memories of the danger that one singular Dalek caused rose to the surface. It was such a destructive alien that the only way they had managed to beat it had been by throwing it into a star to destroy it- and that had only been one creature. From the sounds of it, there was at least one more Dalek (and if Yaz was right about the two locations, at least another one hidden away somewhere else). He tried to calm down slightly as a different tone spoke, presumably belonging to a different Dalek.

 _“NEGATIVE. RESIDUAL ENERGY LEVELS ARE UNCHANGED.”_ The other Dalek replied, and Ryan tried to piece together what they were talking about.

_“ONCE OUR PATROL GAINS ACCESS TO THE SHIP, WE WILL BE VICTORIOUS!”_

_Victorious against who?_ Ryan asked himself, confusion in his mind.

 _“INCOMING ENERGY ALERT.”_ A voice called from the other side of the room, as Ryan peered quickly round his hiding spot to see the situation. There were three bronze Daleks in the room, two coming from the hallway and one from another doorway into the room. The lone creature had been the one who had previously spoken, and he watched as the two other Daleks turned to face it.

 _"EXPLAIN."_ One demanded.

_“ENERGY LEVELS SPIKED. TIME MANIPULATION DETECTED.”_

_“THE OPPOSITION HAS CONTROL OF THE TIME MACHINE?”_ It cried, and Ryan thought of the Tardis they had arrived in 6 months ago, sitting disguised as a house on a normal road in Sheffield. If they were looking for a ship which could travel through time, surely there weren’t many others stranded on Earth?

_“NEGATIVE. ENERGY LEVELS ARE INCREASING. SOMETHING HAS LANDED ON PLANET EARTH.”_

Ryan took in a breath and held it.

_“STATUS?”_

_“ALIVE. CARRYING RESIDUAL LEVELS OF ENERGY.”_

There was a pause as the three creatures stopped to think for a moment. Ryan still hadn’t dared breathe, thoughts swirling around his head. He _had_ to get out of here, as soon as he could.

 _“DOC-TOR?”_ One of the Daleks asked, and Ryan felt his heart stop. _The Doctor?_

_“CANNOT GUARANTEE. LIKELIHOOD OF TIME LORD PRESENCE: 39%.”_

_“GATHER THE TROOPS. THE MISSION WILL BE UPDATED.”_

There was more movement, as all three of the Daleks seemed to be moving away from the room. Ryan looked once more over the cabinet he was hiding behind, watching them leave one by one. As soon as the coast was clear he stood up, shaking his legs out. He wasn’t able to process what had been said, but knew he had to get out of this building and reunite with the others as quickly as possible.

Turning back the way he came, he started to job and once more found the fire exit he had entered from. The second he reached the open air, he broke out into a full sprint, determined to get to the meeting point and warn the others. Though he knew, deep down, that the Doctor was dead, some small part of him dared to believe that he might yet see her on Earth, and that she would be able to save the world again.

***

“So. Four of you now in the Tardis, is it?” Jack asked conversationally as the Doctor led the way towards where her friends lived. Or used to live, at least. “Should I be jealous? Three’s a _lot,_ even for _my_ standards…”

“Graham is Ryan’s grandfather- so you can stop whatever you’re thinking right now.” The Doctor chastised, realising that Jack really hadn’t changed at all since she had last seen him.

“And the girl? What was her name again, Jasmine?”

“Yasmin.” The Doctor replied curtly. “Yaz is… Yaz.”

“And..?” Jack asked, looking at her with a smirk. At her nonplussed expression he continued. “I know what _you’re_ like, Doctor. Pretty girl, travelling in the Tardis with you..?”

The Doctor fixed him with an ice cold glare. “Not like that. That’s not who I am anymore.”

“Really?” Jack asked, looking disappointed. “I didn’t think changing genders had that much of an effect on Time Lords.”

She sighed, looking away from Jack. “It’s got nothing to do with my regeneration. I just don’t get attached like that anymore.”

“That’s not the Doctor I know!” Jack spoke, and jerked suddenly as his friend spun around to face him.

“Yeah, well- you’ve missed a lot, Jack. I’m not the person that you remember anymore.” She said, managing to sound both sad and hostile at the same time. Jack fixed her a melancholic smile, and nothing else was said for a few minutes as they continued to walk towards their destination.

Barely loud enough to hear, Jack broke the silence. “Is it since Rose?” He asked softly, noticing the intake of breath his friend took at the mention of that name. “I mean, it was the first thing I thought when I saw your new look.”

“No, there’ve been people since her!” The Doctor replied, faux-cheerfully (though the look in her eyes gave Jack a hint that he hadn’t been too far off the mark). “There was Clara- you’d have loved her, you really would. And River- we got married, we did! Saved the universe from collapsing with one wedding!”

Jack laughed, happy to listen and play along with the Doctor’s game if she didn’t want to speak about the matter too much.

“Course, I don’t see either of them much anymore,” She added, looking wistfully away into the distance. “That’s the thing about being this old, eh?”

She turned to Jack who grinned back at her sadly. They continued onwards in a more comfortable silence, the Doctor eager to get back to her friends.

Being the place she had frequented most out of the houses of her three friends, the Doctor found herself standing outside of Yaz’s apartment, peering through the frosted glass window on the door. She was able to see that the lights were out, and it would appear nobody was home. Despite this, she rang the doorbell and rapped on the door, hoping her friend would turn up regardless. It was getting towards the evening, and the Doctor suddenly realised how little she truly knew about the day to day lives of her friends. For all she knew, Yaz could be on evening shifts working at the police office- or perhaps, in 6 months, she had moved out of this building and now lived somewhere else entirely.

“She’s not in.” The Doctor stated unhelpfully.

“Are we gonna wait here then? Or maybe try your other friends?” Jack asked, hands on his hips as he waited for her decision. He was quite eager to find the missing friends, and get on with whatever it was the Doctor wanted to do here. The sooner he could be out in the stars again, the better.

The Doctor frowned. Something settled uneasily inside her, as if there was something wrong with the situation. “I’m not sure,” She replied, moving to try to peer through the window on the left of the door. Again, lights were off and nothing could be seen inside in the darkness. “I feel like something isn’t right here.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Wherever you go, trouble seems to follow.” He muttered, watching as his friend reached into her pocket and got out her sonic screwdriver. He noticed the different design- curved metal which looked a lot less professional and more rustic (if a sonic screwdriver could be described as rustic. He didn’t suppose there was anything others floating around time and space for him to compare it to.)

Next thing he knew, the screwdriver was making a familiar buzzing noise and the lock on the front of Yaz’s door had clicked open, allowing the Doctor to push her way forwards into the flat.

“Are you just gonna walk in?” He asked, pausing at the door. “Seems a bit rude.”

“Something isn’t right, I can tell.” The Doctor said in answer, flicking the lightswitch on. “Her family should be home, for one thing.”

She walked further in, peering around the flat and trying to judge the situation. The flat appeared to show signs of life- if the dirty dishes on the side and morning newspaper on the table were anything to go by. Frowning, The Doctor walked towards the room she knew to be Yaz’s and quickly unlocked it, feeling guilty about breaking in but knowing she wouldn’t be happy leaving now.

The Doctor gasped as she took in the room. Every wall was plastered with news articles strung up, maps hastily drawn on and printed documents on every surface. Moving closer, she reached out a hand to the wall and tried to read the headlines of various pieces of media.

_Are We Alone in Sheffield?_

_The Immortal Woman Walks Among Us_

_Mother of Two Claims Metal Monsters Took Her Children!_

The Doctor jerked back, speechless while looking through all the collected evidence stacked up in front of her.

“So, Yaz huh?” Jack asked, looking bemused at the room. “Seems like someone didn’t give up on you.”

The Doctor felt a tiny part of her pull in pride at the thought of Yaz believing in her for this long, six months after she left them to walk to her death. The other, larger part made her heart freeze- the part telling her that her friend must have spent these 6 months in pain and sadness, trying desperately to find anything to hint at the Doctor not being dead. Once more, she found herself cursing the technology Jack used. She would have spared her friends from all of this if it hadn’t been for the dodgy time jump they had been through- and now that she had landed in this time and seen proof that her friends hadn’t seen her for 6 months, there was no chance of going back to rectify the mistake.

“No, she didn’t give up,” The Doctor said. “And I’m pretty sure I know where I can find her.”

Her eyes had stopped on the big map in the center of the wall, three areas circled. The one in the middle, seemingly equidistant from the other two, was circled with a bright red mark, evidently added very recently. If her friends were anywhere, she imagined this place wouldn’t be a bad spot to start the search at.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay okay!!! updates will be weekly from now on because i don't write quick enough lol, thanks again if you're reading and enjoying!!!


	5. ...Run For Your Life!

Yaz took a deep breath as she looked at the church ahead of her. The late afternoon sun was casting golden light onto it as the sun began to set, leaving large shadows across the path in front of her. From the reports she had read, the general consensus was that whatever creatures may be hiding in this area were stationed below the church, underneath the building in perhaps the basement, or even the sewers that ran below the city. Either way, Yaz had a lead to follow and strode towards the church. 

The doors looked heavy and old, as if nobody had touched them for a very long period of time. In her research she had found out that the church hadn’t been used for around 5 years, and had been left as a landmark for locals to observe rather than forcing the council to go to the bother of knocking it down. Whilst it meant that no one else should be here to get in her way, Yaz couldn’t help but shiver as she walked through the doors, the sound of the creaking wooden door echoing throughout the dark landmark and leaving an unsettled feeling inside her stomach. As both a police woman and a time traveller she had faced much worse situations and came out unscathed, and yet something about being alone with the unknown around her made everything feel ten times as scary.

The sound of her footsteps reverberated as she made her way towards the back of the church, hoping to find an entrance to a lower basement, or at least a drain which she could observe for signs of life below. Her phone torch wasn’t bright enough to reach far ahead of her, and she cursed the fact that she hadn’t bought a brighter torch with her. Every movement and intake of breath seemed amplified throughout the silent chapel as she walked past the dusty old pews and in the direction of the back room. Another wooden door (thankfully not as thick or noisey as the previous) stood in her way and Yaz reached for the cold stone handle and twisted it open.

This room was even darker than the previous, having no windows to let in the evening sun. A quick scan with her phone torch told Yaz that the room she was in was fairly small, filled with cobwebbed candle holders and various other bits of decorative church furniture. She ran her hand across a stack of abandoned bibles, and pulled back quickly in mild discomfort at the sheer amount of dust which had collected onto the top of her finger. There seemed to be no sign of life- alien or otherwise- anywhere within this building, and a part of Yaz was screaming at her to leave everything alone and get out; report back to the others and tell them that nobody had entered the church for years, least of all an alien species.

And then, as her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, the faintest orange glow crept into her vision from the far corner of the room. Turning her head and moving forwards to get a better view, she found herself staring at a grating which was very dimly illuminated- but illuminated nonetheless. Either the light was coming from a very far distance below the level she was standing on, or it was simply a very weak light. Bending over, she reached to touch the metal and was unsurprised to find it fixed in place along the floor, deeply stuck into the concrete which held the stones together.

She stood back up. Very carefully, with purposeful steps Yaz moved around the floor, feeling the ground beneath her. It was obvious now that she knew there was an open area down below her, but before she hadn’t realised that her footsteps were echoing differently in this room than in the previous due to this underground space. With any luck there might be an opening somewhere in the room, some trapdoor or hidden entrance that would lead to the chambers below. 

She walked carefully across the floor, reaching her way across the room and tensing for any difference in footfall noise or the texture of the floor. As she reached the corner, her footsteps suddenly changed to a louder noise, and Yaz looked down to see what she was standing on. For all she could see, the floor seemed very similar which puzzled her. Stuck in the corner, she touched the wall in front of her and paused for a second.

_ Knock knock. _

Her heart race increased dramatically as Yaz heard the hollow, telling noise of a secret doorway in front of her. She pushed gently, then slightly harder and was rewarded with a panel of the wall going inwards, opening up to reveal a very small room- more of a cupboard than anything else. And on the floor, already open, was a trapdoor with a ladder hanging down on it, the orange glow being stronger over here than it had looked from down the grating on the other side of the room. Many thoughts were whizzing through Yas’s mind- did she go down the hole now when she didn’t know what lay below or wait to get the others first? Did she have enough on her to get out of a sticky situation, if it came down to it? And the most important question, she thought while looking at the already open trapdoor entrance.

Who else had gone down the hole before her?

***

About 100 metres away, Meredith Parker stood hidden behind a slightly ajar door, holding her breath as she tried to get up the courage to move. Her breath caught as she thought of the tall, metal creature who had moved past her hiding spot not a minute after she had climbed down the ladder she had found in the hidden cupboard. The mechanical whirring coming from around a corner had alerted her to the presence of one of the creatures she had spotted the last time she had investigated the church, and immediately she had moved to hide. She wasn’t risking anything- especially not now after what had happened in the Cathedral in town. Thoughts of her husband filled her mind again, and she shook her head to clear it. No. There was a time and a place to worry about him- and it wasn’t now, where she stood in a likely dangerous situation.

As she waited to be certain the robot had gone, her eyes immediately locked onto movement from across the chamber she was in. They opened- wondering what was going on, and then she remembered the location of the ladder and the fact that she had left the trapdoor open. Someone else must be joining her down here, and Meredith hoped they knew what they were doing here.

***

Yaz reached the bottom of the ladder, her feet landing on solid stone ground. She waved her phone around slowly to try to get an idea of the layout of wherever she was, and noted the corridor she was in. Everything was dimly lit by an orangey-yellow light bulb which hung from the ceiling above her and cast shadows across the floor. As she looked, she spotted a t-junction further on up the corridor and decided to make her way towards that, trying to keep as quiet as humanly possible. She crept forwards, cringing as her footsteps echoed off the walls around her and silently prayed that the reports she had gathered were none other than a coincidence- some kind of old legend that was doing the rounds of the neighbourhood.

The next decision came when Yaz reached the intersection and realised she had no way of knowing where to go, or where either of these paths led. She reasoned that she could just choose one and follow it forwards, and turn back if it proved to be a waste of her time. Another part of her wondered if the entire area would be full of junctions, each one branching off into different pathways and Yaz thought of herself, trapped in the dark underground maze with no way of getting out.

While she pondered the choice of direction, the probation constable failed to notice a noise which had begun from behind her. It sounded like mechanical whirring and as it increased in volume Yaz straightened up, finally hearing the noise. She whipped around to face the direction it was coming from, but before she could do anything else she felt hands on her shoulder grab her from the side, and was dragged into the left path of the fork she was standing at. She opened her mouth to scream, but before she could let anything out a hand was around her face, effectively quietining her.

_ “Shh!” _ The person whispered in her ear faintly (and slightly panicked). Yaz turned to get a better look at them, and saw she was facing a young female about her height with long, brown hair and an anxious expression on her face. Yaz let herself be pulled into a little alcove in the side of the wall, tightly packed against the other girl but hidden from view if anything tried to look into the passageway. Feeling like she could barely breathe, the whirring noise got louder as it moved towards them, closer until it was clear and noisy and somehow strangely familiar to Yaz…

The creature came into view from beside the entrance to their passageway, and Yaz froze. Standing to the left of her, tall and chillingly frightening, was a bronze Dalek. For a moment, Yaz forgot how to breathe as she was reminded of the last time she had encountered one of these creatures, and how dangerous it had proved to be- how  _ terrified  _ it had made even The Doctor seem. If these were the creatures who had been spotted around the city, then the whole of Sheffield- no, the entire world was in danger. Her eyes followed the Dalek as it moved forwards, thankfully not going down their path and instead moving through the wider chamber, the whirring noise (which she now knew to be due to the Dalek moving) finally quieting again.

Finally breathing again, she turned to the girl who had probably saved her life, and began to speak.

“Who are you? And what’re you doing here?” She said, voice still very low in case there were any other Daleks near to them.

“My name’s Meredith,” The girl answered. “Why are you here?” She turned the question back to Yaz.

“I’m here because of those creatures. My name’s Yaz and I work with the police- you need to get yourself out of here.” She instructed, trying to shift into her hard police attitude. However, Meredith resolutely shook her head at the thought of leaving.

“I’m not leaving. I came down here to investigate those things too- I saw one of them at the Cathedral.” She explained, and Yaz tried not to let her facial expression change at the revelation that the Dalek’s were in fact to do with the attack in the city earlier on in the day. Her thoughts turned to Graham, and how she had sent him into the Cathedral in the hopes that it wouldn’t be as dangerous as the other two, seeing as none of the reported metal robots had been seen outside her and Ryan’s locations. She prayed that they had all left before he had got there.

“Look, I need you to do something for me. These creatures- they’re called Daleks, and I’ve dealt with them before.” She spoke, looking at Meredith as her eyes widened. “They’re incredibly dangerous, and that’s why I need you to get out of here.”

“But-” Meredith tried to cut in, but Yaz shook her head back at her.

“No buts. I need you to help me, but to do that you’re going to have to find my friends and let them know that there are Daleks here. They can help us, but I  _ need  _ you to go and find them by the Cathedral. Can you do that for me?” She asked, looking very serious. The other girl seemed to dither, her eyes betraying her as Yaz saw how unconvinced she looked.

“I don’t think I can-” She began, but as she did Yaz held up her hand. The whirring noise had begun again, and this time it wasn’t coming from the other path. It was coming from their branch- and if it were to walk past in their direction, there was no hiding from the angle it would pass their hiding spot at.

“ _ Run!” _ She said, grabbing Meredith and pushing her out of the hole they were in. Meredith dwardled on her feet before following Yaz out, turning the corner and heading back towards where they had entered from. As the ladder came into view, further down the path in front of them Yaz paled to see another Dalek coming towards them, and prayed that she was quick enough to get them up the ladder before it saw them. She pushed Meredith towards their escape route, and urged her on as she began to climb the rungs.

_ “INTRUDER SPOTTED.”  _ A robotic voice cried, and the blood in Yaz’s veins went cold. As the voice spoke, the corridor illuminated more due to the flashing of two lights on the top of the Dalek’s head.

“Go!” Yaz shouted, adrenaline running through her. “Get to the Cathedral and warn my friends: Daleks- I’ll distract them!”

Meredith gave her one quick nod, face pale with fear, before she stepped up the last rung and pulled herself out of the hidden complex and back up to the church. From below, Yaz could hear her footsteps sprinting above her and prayed that she got the message back to Ryan and Graham. She turned to face the Dalek, which was now barely a few metres away from her.

_ “INTRUDERS WILL BE EXTERMINATED.”  _ It cried, and Yaz turned around to try to run in the other direction- only to find herself faced with the other Dalek instead.

“No, don’t!” She shouted, turning between the two of them. There was no chance of her getting up the ladder- they would shoot before she could get up the first rung. “Don’t shoot!”

_ “RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.”  _ The other Dalek spoke, and Yaz saw the metal weapon on its front move to point straight at her.  _ “EXTERMINATE!” _

_ “EXTERMINATE!”  _ The other Dalek joined in, and Yaz shut her eyes tight.

***

It took Ryan only a few minutes to escape the abandoned building he was in and arrive at the Cathedral, as he had run as fast as he could to get back. He had been moving so quickly that his brain had barely had time to think, other than focus on getting to his Grandpa, who was in a building which had been attacked by Daleks and could possibly still be filled with the robots. And Yaz- who was investigating the other location, and could also be at risk of coming into contact with the other group of Daleks.

He rounded a corner and came face to face with the Cathedral in front of him, the entire area swarming with police officers and paramedics. Scanning the environment, Ryan searched for a sign of Graham or Yaz. With great surprise, off to the right of the building he spotted Graham talking with two police officers, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders which Ryan knew he hadn’t left with. He frowned, wondering what had happened to him while he had been investigating elsewhere, and made his way over towards where he was standing.

“Graham?” He asked as soon as he got close enough to speak. His Grandpa whipped around to look at him, and Ryan stared at his appearance. He looked pained- his eyes seemed slightly red, as if he had been crying, and his top had some browning stains which looked suspiciously like blood. Had he been hurt? “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Ryan,” Graham replied, smiling despite his physical appearance. “God am I glad to see you back here.”

“What happened?” Ryan questioned, not yet at ease with his response.

Graham’s eyes glazed over while he recounted what had happened while he was investigating the area. Ryan’s eyes widened as he heard all about the man Graham had found alone and abandoned at the back of the church, and felt ill when his Grandpa told him that he had died in his arms.

“God, that’s terrible. Are you okay?” He asked, pulling him into a hug.

“I’m alright. I’ll feel better once this whole thing is over,” Graham responded before looking to the police man on his left, the pair of law enforcers having turned to face the two of them.

“If that’s all, I have your statement and you’re free to go, Sir.” He said to Graham, patting him on the shoulder lightly. “Thanks for your help- if you need anything else, let us know.”

“Thanks,” Graham said, watching as they walked off to speak to a different group of people. “I’m glad they’ve gone- felt like I couldn’t explain anything properly to them. What did you find?”

Ryan shuddered. “Daleks.”

The gasp Graham let out was loud enough to attract the attention of the group of people standing metres away from them. Ryan quietened his voice as he quickly tried to summarise the things he had seen and heard, to the best of his abilities. He cursed himself for not recording what had happened on his phone, as the exact details of what had been said were already fading from his memory.

“I can’t believe it,” Graham replied, his face white as a sheet and voice shaky. “So you’re saying, the things that killed all of those people and destroyed the Cathedral. It was Daleks?”

Ryan nodded gravely.

“Bloody hell…” Graham said, running his fingers through his hair. “I hope Yaz is okay.”

“What’s wrong with Yaz?”

Ryan and Graham both whipped around, shocked out of their skin at the female voice which suddenly spoke behind them. As they laid eyes on the figure standing there, their mouths opened in absolute shock.  _ How could she be back? _

“Doctor?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah okay hi i'm back uh as i have this chapter written i'll post it but idk how much i feel up to writing the rest of this story ngl, so i may not post for a while lol. kinda sucks getting no reads/kudos/comments on a chapter so i've lost motivation


	6. Daleks in Sheffield?

_ “EXTERMINATE!”  _

Yaz ducked as soon as she heard this cry, feeling the heat of two energy shots pass by just centimeters away from her head. They hit each other halfway, sparking and illuminating the corridor brightly again.

“No, don’t shoot!” Yaz tried, picking herself off the floor until she was standing with her hands up in surrender. “I’m unarmed. You don’t need to do this!”

_ “TRESPASSERS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO ESCAPE.”  _ One Dalek cried. Yaz’s mind whirred as she tried to come up with any plan. Think, for goodness sake!

“Then don’t let me escape- take me to your leader.” She tried desperately. “You don’t have to kill me!”

Both Daleks paused for a second, registering her words.  _ “WE HAVE NO NEED FOR HUMAN PRISONERS.” _

_ “PROCEED WITH EXECUTION.” _

Once more their weapons pointed straight at Yaz, who closed her eyes. She felt hopeless and alone, and cursed herself for not being able to get herself out of this situation.  _ The Doctor would know how to get out of here alive,  _ she thought bitterly, wishing more than anything that her favourite alien was here on Earth with them and not dead in the ashes of some far off planet.

_ “HALT.”  _ A different voice, lower in tone, rang out. Yaz’s breath hitched- a third Dalek couldn’t be good news- except when it was prolonging the time she had left to live.

_ “COMMANDER.”  _ The Dalek behind her answered.

_ “INCOMING TRANSMISSION. THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE IN THE LEVELS OF BACKGROUND ARTRON ENERGY LEVELS.” _

_ “EXPLAIN!” _

_ “TWO TIME-TRAVELLERS DETECTED. LOCATION: UNKNOWN.”  _ It explained, and the world around Yaz came to a halt. There weren’t very many time travellers that she knew, but the one who would be most likely to return to Sheffield when trouble was brewing would be The Doctor. She barely wanted to get her hopes up- reminding herself that the last time she had seen her had been when she had stepped outside of the TARDIS to go on a suicide mission- but the part of her which had refused to be put out thus far was crying at her that she was still alive, somehow.

While lost in thought, Yaz had failed to notice the Dalek’s turning back to her. Once more their weapons were raised, and Yaz blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“I know The Doctor!” She shouted, and the corridor went silent. “I’m useful- don’t kill me.”

_ “YOU KNOW THE DOC-TOR?”  _ The supposed commander out of the three Daleks asked, and Yaz nodded in response.

_ “THE DOCTOR IS ON EARTH?”  _

“No- I mean, I don’t know,” Yaz replied, not wanting to lie to the creatures that held her life in their hands, but also didn’t want to tell them that she had been likely killed in case they thought her life was not worth saving due to that point. “Maybe.”

_ “THE HUMAN WILL BE KEPT UNTIL FURTHER INFORMATION ARISES.”  _ The commander ordered, and Yaz let out a breath she hadn’t realised she had been holding in. She wouldn’t be killed- yet, at least. But that gave her some time to find out what was going on in this location and somehow try to get the information back to Graham and Ryan. If she couldn’t escape, at least she could try to save the day from behind enemy ranks.

Following their orders, Yaz let herself be led further into the complex, praying that she would see the outside world again.

***

Graham stood still, well aware that his mouth was hanging open as he looked at the two humans in front of him. There was no mistaking the female figure- this was his friend, who he had presumed was dead for months, standing in the flesh in front of him. In Sheffield.

“You- how, we thought you were  _ dead,  _ Doc?” He managed to blurt out.

“He has a habit of getting himself into trouble- or, she I should say,” The male figure spoke, and Graham turned to face the American sounding voice. His brain moved slowly as he tried to place where he had seen him before, but before he could figure it out the man was speaking once more. 

“Captain Jack Harkness, I believe we had the  _ pleasure  _ of meeting before.” He said, voice full of innuendo as he thrust out his hand for him to shake. Graham suddenly remembered the spaceship he had been transported to, and first hearing this voice before, and then- “ _ Now  _ he remembers!” Jack leered, dropping his hand.

“He remembers what?” The Doctor asked, looking between the two with a frown. “Oh, don’t tell me- I think I’d rather not know…”

“Don’t worry, he doesn’t mean anything,” Graham quickly interrupted. Thankfully his Grandson came to the rescue.

“How are you here?” He asked the Doctor, ignoring the hand Jack was holding out for him. 

The Doctor gave him a funny look, trying to decide what she would tell her friends and what she would choose to hold back for now. “Well, I managed to escape from Gallifrey, long story and I can explain in a bit- but then I managed to get myself captured by the Judoon- I  _ really  _ hate the Judoon. Have I mentioned that before?”

Ryan and Graham nodded. “Well, turns out I’m not the only one with something to hide, and that someone managed to bust me out! And before you complain, it’s totally his fault that I arrived so late- 51st Century Time Agency technology is  _ so  _ unreliable…”

“Hey!” Jack shouted. “If it weren’t for that technology, you’d still be locked in a cell and I would’ve been killed,  _ again _ !”

Graham looked puzzled. “Again?”

The Doctor shook her head. “Unimportant. Most important thing is that I’m back! Now tell me, what were you saying about Yaz?”

As Ryan opened his mouth to launch into an explanation, a woman standing a few feet away decided to make her presence known. She stepped forwards, and looked at the group of people.

“Did you just say Yaz?” She asked, perplexing the people around her.

“Yes,” The Doctor replied, taking the reins. “If you don’t mind me asking, who are you and how do you know Yaz?”

The girl fiddled with a ring on her finger before speaking once more. “My name is Meredith. Yaz told me to find you guys, and relay a message.”

Graham paled slightly at the mention of her name. “Hold on. That wouldn’t be Meredith Parker, would it?” He asked, not wanting to know if his hunch was correct.

“I- yes, how do you know my full name?” She asked, turning to face the old man. At the look on his face, Meredith panicked- seeing the pain in the man’s eyes, her thoughts turned to her husband and without knowing  _ why  _ or  _ how,  _ she knew deep down that something horrendous had happened to her husband. “Is it Dan? Please don’t tell me it’s him.”

Ryan bit his lip as he made the connection, remembering what his Grandpa had told him about what had happened in the Cathedral. “I’m so sorry.”

_ “No!”  _ Meredith all but shouted, her face turning angry. “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. He can’t be- he couldn’t just  _ leave  _ me- not my Dan-”

She broke off into a sob, reaching across to hold The Doctor’s shoulder as it happened to be the closest thing she could balance on. Her legs wobbled from beneath her as the whole world felt like it was spinning and falling apart.

“He tried to get other workers out of the building before it- before the ceiling collapsed. He was a hero.” Graman consoled, understanding the grief the other was going through at losing the person she loved more than anybody else on the planet. “He didn’t die alone, I stayed with him. Told me to tell you that he loved you more than anything in the universe.”

“Oh God…” Jack muttered, filling in the blanks as he looked between the police at the ruined Cathedral in front of him and the girl sobbing beside him. He watched on as The Doctor awkwardly patted her on the back, trying to console her as the tears began to fall. She shot a panicked look at Ryan and Graham, mouthing ‘ _ What happened?’  _ to them, clueless to what was going on in the city centre. The two men looked at each other, neither wanting to speak about something as worrying as Daleks while Meredith was coming to terms with her loss, though knowing that The Doctor wasn’t going to rest until she knew what was happening. Thankfully, they were interrupted by the grieving woman herself, who pulled back from The Doctor long enough to begin to speak to them all.

“Yaz told me I had to find you, and tell you what we saw.” She managed, the sorrow in her eyes coming through only as strong as the fiery anger she also felt.

“What is it?” The Doctor asked.

“Daleks. She told me to tell you that they’re here, in Sheffield.” She said.

Both The Doctor and Captain Jack’s faces dropped immediately at the mention of the creature. “Daleks?” She asked, and Meredith nodded in response.

“Oh boy, this can’t be good…” Jack added, reaching up to run his hand through his hair.

Ryan raised his hand meekly, wanting to add his own to the conversation. “Would now be a good time to mention I also found a group of Daleks?”

The Doctor whipped around to face him, looking away from Meredith. “Another?”

“And I’m pretty sure they were behind this incident with the Cathedral, too.” Graham said, adding his own two cents to the story.

“When were you going to tell me this?” The Doctor asked, looking worried. “No, scratch that- what are they doing in Sheffield? What do they want?”

Jack placed his hand on The Doctor’s shoulder, trying to calm her down. He could sense that her mind was moving at an incredible pace, but remembered one thing which he had to ask first. “Meredith,” He asked quietly. “Why couldn’t Yaz tell us this herself?”

The group of people all went silent, suddenly realising what they had failed to question when Meredith had first turned up.  _ Where was Yaz? _

“I- I’m sorry,” She began, looking upset and slightly guilty. “I didn’t want to leave her behind but she  _ insisted  _ I left to find you.”

“Where’s Yaz?” The Doctor asked, trying to keep her voice level and not let her worry seep into her words.

“She’s still there. The Daleks found us, but there was only time for one of us to escape. I don’t know what happened to her.” Meredith got out, tears beginning to run down her cheeks again. 

The silence that fell over the group was deafening. It was almost as if the air around them had stopped moving, and the people standing in the area had fallen quiet too at the news. Even Meredith’s tears fell with no noise whatsoever, running down her face but refusing to fall just yet.

“Tell me how to get to her.” The Doctor ordered, breaking the silence. As if a dam had broken, the others moved once more and Jack opened his mouth.

“Doctor, do you think that’s a good idea?” He asked, frown on his face. “If they found her, you know what they’re like, how ruthless they are and-”

“I know what a Dalek is, Jack.” The Doctor snapped, anger and pain showing in her eyes. “I’ve seen them destroy the people I called family, have watched them commit mass genocide for fun- so don’t lecture me on what a Dalek is capable of. I  _ know  _ what they are, and that’s precisely  _ why  _ I have to go and find Yaz.”

A pained look crossed Jack’s face as he remembered the numerous occasions where he had come up against this species. None of them had ended well for him, and he had faced them a fraction of the number of times The Doctor had. The fire in her eyes sparked something inside him, and he nodded.

“Alright. But I’m coming with you.” He said, matching her stare with one of his own.

“I’m coming too, then Doc.” Graham matched, standing tall and trying to hide the fear inside of him.

The Doctor, however, shook her head defiantly. “Absolutely not. They’re dangerous and will kill you if you give them the opportunity.”

A part of Graham sighed thankfully at the rejection, and yet there was another feeling in him that wanted nothing more than to go and find his friend and save her from the creatures. “How come Jack can go but not us?”

“I’ve found it quite difficult to be killed,” The Captain responded. “Don’t tend to stay dead long.”

Confused, Ryan turned to open his mouth and speak but was beaten by Meredith, who had stopped crying and instead looked angry.

“Let me go with you.” She demanded. “I want to defeat the creatures that killed my husband.”

Another pained look crossed over The Doctor’s face. “I understand. But he wouldn’t have wanted you to throw your life away like this. Let us go,” She said, pointing between her and Jack. “And when we come back with Yaz, you can help us with the next bit.”

“The next bit?” Ryan asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Letting the Daleks know there is no place for them on this planet.”

***

The walk to the church Meredith had told them how to find was tense and quiet. Despite being a very talkative human, Jack knew the danger he and The Doctor were walking into and didn’t want to think about what might have happened to The Doctor’s friend Yaz. Deep down, he knew the unlikeliness of her survival if the Dalek’s had discovered her in their base, but he also knew that if she was a friend of the Time Lord’s then she would probably be more resourceful than the average human. Something about the look in The Doctor’s eyes had shocked Jack- despite knowing that she had been through a lot, it felt like the anger inside them was stronger than the last time he had met her. He supposed the same could be said for him, as the pain of being an immortal being while people he loved would grow old and die in the blink of an eye was difficult to cope with.

“This is it.” The Doctor said, halting in front of Jack and pointing to the derelict church standing tall in the dark light. By now the sun had well and truly gone down, and it was difficult to make out the difference between this building and the ones around it without light. Jack reached for his Vortex Manipulator and pressed a few buttons, giving it a few seconds to work until it shone a beam of light akin to a torch. Using this, he managed to navigate his way to the entrance of the building, and remembering Meredith’s instructions made his way through to the back room.

“Here?” He said, looking towards the open panel in the far wall which was illuminated softly by the glow of the chambers below it.

“Here.” The Doctor replied.

“Give me one moment and I’ll just…” Jack said, once more flicking buttons on his wrist. “Got it.”

He waited patiently while it made a slow whirring noise, and then it let out a quick beep, flashing bright. Looking at the screen Jack finally allowed himself a grin again, and he turned to The Doctor.

“She’s alive. And my scan has told me exactly where she is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there kiddos! I didn't plan to continue with this fic for a while, but the fact that quite a few people commented on my last one saying they were enjoying it really made me want to write some more! The best motivation for me is kudos and comments so please keep them coming if you want to hear more of this fic! Thank you for the support if you've read this far! <3


End file.
